After three years with a digital agency that had initially delivered results, but then the digital presence plateaued, Bx discovered that finding the right digital agency was key to taking their marketing efforts to the next level.
Bx is a platform that helps business owners and professionals connect with each other through local and online events. It stands out by offering a modern, fun, and structured approach to generate leads and referrals for its members, and it has a strong growth pipeline, having launched in the US, Canada, Eastern Europe and the Middle East in recent years.
Of course, for a business like this to succeed, it needs feet through the door. As Bx’s CEO and founder, Matt Alderton said, it relies heavily on online platforms to attract and retain people in the network, making its website a key marketing asset.
“For about three years, we worked with a digital agency that helped us with these aspects of our online presence. In the first 12 months, we were very happy with the results they delivered. We could see the change and the direction they were taking us. We were growing our bookings, attracting more guests, and getting positive feedback from people who found us on Google,” Alderton said.
“We were spending a reasonable amount on Google AdWords and paying an agency fee as well. But we could see the results, so we were pretty happy with that change in trajectory.”
Unfortunately, after that first year, the trajectory slowed, despite Bx’s growth in other areas. This led Alderton and his team to question whether they were getting the best value from the digital agency.
“We were also not sure how much impact our digital presence was having, as the transparency just wasn’t there and we could not see any physical effect or growth,” Alderton said. “We were asking ourselves: ‘If we increased the money, would we get a better result?’ and we couldn’t be confident about the answer, which was concerning.”
The team at Bx were left with the impression that the digital agency was “guarding” their data and methods, and because they didn’t commit to regular meetings and look for strategic ways to support the business, the end result was simple: Bx felt like they had hit a wall with this agency.
“We wanted to have more communication and collaboration,” Alderton said. “We wanted to see the evidence of their work and the outcomes of their strategies. And we wanted to have more control and input over our online marketing.
” Alderton realised that the only way to achieve those things was to find a new partner for digital marketing.
By partnering with WebEagles, Bx was able to see a significant improvement in SEO and digital marketing performance across three key areas:
Bx has been able to launch in new locations and regions with greater confidence that the marketing strategy is in place from day one. WebEagles also helped to optimise Bx’s overall digital approach, with a focus on laying down a strong foundation for SEO that would continue to build and generate results over months and years.
By helping to improve the organic SEO and AdWords strategy, Bx has seen a substantial increase in website traffic and Google rankings. More importantly, however, there has also been an increase in conversions, and bookings. Bx has been able to attract new members who have never heard of the company before, and this has had a flow-on effect in strengthening the networks.
By working with WebEagles, Bx can create and share more content that appeals to its target market: the SME sector. WebEagles supports its partners in generating content that showcases expertise, their value proposition, and their testimonials. Critically, Bx has been able to enhance the quality, quantity and reach of its educational content, which allows it to demonstrate thought leadership in the market. Bx has also been able to extend its reach with content into a wide range of channels, such as through its website, social media and EDMs, to share our content widely.
In 2021, Bx hired a new general manager who suggested that one of the first steps forward would be to review the digital agency and see if we could find a better option.
“We met with a few agencies and one of them stood out to us: WebEagles,” Alderton said. “We were impressed by their presentation and their approach. They showed us how they could help us improve our online presence and grow our business. They also showed us how they would communicate and collaborate with us on a regular basis. They promised to provide us with clear and honest information and results.
“We decided to give them a try and we were not disappointed. We saw a change in our online results quite quickly. We saw an increase in our website traffic, our Google rankings, our conversions, and our bookings. We also saw a difference in the way they worked with us. They were very responsive and proactive. They kept us updated on their work and their results. They listened to our feedback and suggestions. They made us feel like partners, not clients.”
– Matt Alderton, Founder & CEO of Bx
Ultimately, Bx had found a partner that could support its robust and global growth strategy, supporting the SEO rankings, while at the same time offering strategic input into how to further leverage the incredible amount of multimedia content to further build engagement and deepen the SEO presence of the company.
Bx CEO and Founder, Matt Alderton, shared three key insights on SEO that he had taken away from working with WebEagles:
The Power of Organic SEO
One of the standout differences that I have noticed since we switched to WebEagles is how much organic SEO matters for our online presence and our business. I have always known that SEO is a long-term strategy, not a quick fix. But what I have realised is that the longer you do it, the more exponential the results become.
WebEagles have helped us build and optimise our keyword set, our terms, and our search rankings. The team has helped us get to the top positions on Google for our relevant keywords. And they have helped us maintain and expand our base of high-return search terms. This has given us an incredible advantage over our competitors and a huge boost in our website traffic, conversions, and bookings. We have also been able to reach more people who have never heard of us before and who are looking for our services.
The best part is that we don’t have to keep investing in the search terms that we have already secured. We can focus on adding new ones and growing our reach even further. This is the value proposition of organic SEO. It is where the money is at.
The Importance of Content
Another insight that I have gained from working with WebEagles is how important content is for our sector. We are targeting the SME market, which loves content. Most business owners are good at their tradecraft, but they lack the skills across most of the other areas of business.
That’s why we provide a lot of networking and general business education content for our members and potential customers. We want to showcase our expertise, our value proposition, and our testimonials. We want to connect with them and help them grow their businesses.
We have seen that our content strategy has increased our brand awareness, our credibility, and our loyalty. It has also generated more leads, referrals, and conversions. Content is a powerful tool for our sector, and now we are using it to our advantage.
The Challenge of Scalability
One of the goals that we have for the future is to scale our business and reach more members globally. We have a growth goal of 5000 members in the next 12 to 18 months, and 10,000 members in the next three years. We have also launched a new exclusive membership tier to attract more high-end customers.
To achieve these goals, we need to leverage the different areas of marketing, and SEO is a key one of them. We need to invest and scale our SEO strategy in proportion to the growth we want. We need to launch new locations, regions, and groups, and we need to continue to feed the base.
We also need to overcome the challenge of churn. We know that people are with us for a season or a reason, but very rarely a lifetime. We have a very low churn rate of 2%, which means we retain 98% of our customers. But we still need to add new ones in, or we will be slowly shrinking the base while trying to grow the new group. With the support of WebEagles, we are building a strategy that will allow us to continue growing the base and retaining our customers. One that provides them with value, support, and satisfaction.